


Attrition

by makoredeyes



Series: The Human Condition [3]
Category: Titanfall
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 10:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10435320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makoredeyes/pseuds/makoredeyes
Summary: One by one, the Titans vanished.





	

**Leads into "A Future Together" in my Human Condition series. You can read either of these two first, I think, but this one takes place prior to the other.**

 

 

                Jack sat with his back pressed against the inside of BT’s enormous leg, a rifle laid across his knees, as he counted ammunition. His hands shook. At his toes, a tiny creek burbled, the peaceful sound directly opposing the noise in Jack’s head and his heart. They had taken shelter in a deep ravine; one last desperate attempt to hide.  Through their Neural Link, Jack could feel BT’s disquiet matching his own, paired with the grim acceptance of what was to come.  Jack clung to optimism, wordlessly crushed it down upon his partner, and if BT recognized it as the desperation in disguise that it was, he didn’t mention it.

                Jack’s feelings had always come first with BT, but the Pilot could tell his friend was, perhaps for the first time ever, honestly as afraid as he was.

                A week ago, they had come for him. 

The last echoes of the last gunshot of the war had faded away into history, and in the cloying embrace of peace, the people had found a new fear: the Titans. Jack and BT hadn’t been the only Pilot-Titan team to retire after the war. Likewise, BT hadn’t been the only miracle of science: the Vanguard Class Artificial Intelligences had been reclassified as Synthetic Intelligence.  They had become far more than the machines of war they were built to be. One by one, they learned empathy, joy, fear, affection… They learned to love art, the color of the sunsets, and were all fascinated by whatever their Pilots…their _friends_ -loved.

                One of them had even found love for himself.

                By the end of the war, however, Titan Pilots had become so rare, so misunderstood and generally mistrusted, that there were very few who truly knew the Titans for what they had become. The rest of the world only knew them for what they had seen on the holovids, or in the pit of battle, trampling their back yards, their homes, their families. The war for the Frontier had been a brutal one. Many argued there had been no actual winner. Everyone had lost something. Most had lost everything.   In the dying shadow of the IMC and the Militia, all that was left for the public to blame were the Titans.

                One country, one planet at a time, the community had risen against them. Police came to the decommissioned bases, raided hangars and repair bays.  At first, the Titans, innocent, had gone willingly, not understanding their fate.  Word spread.  Many Pilots, in attempts to save their friends from an undeserving fate, lost their lives or their freedom to imprisonment. 

                One by one, the Titans vanished.

                BT and Jack faded into the countryside, hoping to not be missed. They only needed each other, after all, and were perfectly content to live hidden from the world, if it meant peace.  For a time, they thought they had made it work. Then, one day, a knock on a door.  Jack had answered calmly enough, even managed to small-talk the Policeman, while through the Link he fed BT everything he was truly feeling. The Titan had been clever enough to get what was happening, and had fled before he had been seen. That had been a week ago.  The subsequent pursuit had been inevitable.

                Now they were huddled together, out of resources, exhausted and worn down.  Jack had six shots left.  At his back, BT’s legs quivered minutely, his batteries all dangerously low.  Jack had not eaten once, and had been averaging ten minutes of sleep a day.  He sucked in a shuddering breath. BT reached down to gently curl his hand around him in his best facsimile of an embrace.

                “Jack.”  BT’s fingers closed just a little tighter around him. In the distance, the faint roar of engines could be heard. Jack closed his eyes. “We’re outnumbered.” BT added, and his voice was thin, resigned. “You should run, while you can.”

                Jack let out a derisive snort, lovingly offended BT would suggest such a thing.

                “I’m not going anywhere, BT,” He growled the words, but knew that the Titan would feel the warmth behind them.  

                “I intend to surrender,” BT said, and Jack swore his voice shook.  He gave Jack one last loving squeeze before standing up straight, gingerly stepping over Jack to climb out of their hiding place.  Over the rise, a cloud of dust was the first sign of the convoy heading their way. “Please stay down.” 

                Jack obeyed, staying crouched in the shadows even as BT stepped into the sunlight to face the first of the heavily armed trucks pulling to a halt in his shadow.

                “I’m coming back for you!” Jack cried, just before the first officer stepped out. He felt the wave of reassurance from BT, acknowledging his pledge.  Stowed deep down underneath, there was Sorrow, and worst of all, Fear.  It was barely there, well hidden, but Jack saw it for what it was. He watched from his cover as BT shakily stepped out, hands up in surrender, and cried.   BT reached up, clutching his sensor array in one hand, and tore it from his body, using his last command to stow the precious Data Core and SERE kit within his cockpit before collapsing, lifeless.

                The Link shattered, and Jack had to shove his arm into his own mouth to muffle the shriek that erupted from him.  He staggered, collapsing as his mind was shredded by so much broken glass, the physical and mental anguish too much.  His arm bled where he had bitten himself.  BT was gone.

                Jack had not realized he had blacked out until the sound of the convoy departing roused him.  He climbed into the sunlight as the last vehicle – an enormous flatbed with BT’s body heaped onto it – started up.

                Jack was tattered, inside and out, but he found the will to move, forcing his legs until they burned. He made the sprint to the back of the truck, leaping up just as it rumbled into gear. He landed roughly, slipping and almost falling off, clinging to a strut from one of the Titan’s arms.  He scrambled, kicked, and even cried out, desperate, but eventually he made it up.  For a time, he simply clung.  He would not be heard over the road noise and the wind, and the cab of the enormous vehicle was a long ways from where he sat, and so Jack cried without restraint.  The Vanguard was crumpled face-down onto the bed, obviously having been hauled up with great difficulty, and years later, Jack would realize he was glad he hadn’t seen that, at least. For now, he nestled against one enormous hand, and wrung his fractured heart out into the wind and the dust.  

 

                The drive lasted over an hour.  When the truck finally slowed to stop, Jack allowed himself to return from the dark place within himself.  He had to get to BT’s core, hidden safely within the cockpit, but there was no accessing it from the position BT’s body was in. He would have to bide his time.   Shaking the last of the Void off his skin, he steeled himself.  With one last loving caress of the chassis at his side, he leapt, rolling away from the convoy unseen, as the truck turned the last corner into the reclamation plant.

                Jack crouched low behind a retaining wall, watching as the Titan was hoisted by a crane from the truck, and deposited with a crash onto a conveyer belt. Jack’s heart raced. The great figure was already disappearing into the facility, and the crew who had delivered him were still blocking his path. Jack unshouldered his rifle, palming the stock.   He was going to have to fight his way in.  He had six shots, every one of them had to count.  He turned back within himself and stared into the Void where BT had been.  The darkness smiled beatifically back at him, and a chill cracked down his spine.

                Jack didn’t remember stepping out from his hiding place, but he had, and his weapon was raised and ready.  Shouts of alarm and anger rose, threats, and then, the first gunshot.  Jack pressed forward, breaking into a run, returning fire only once.  Just ahead, a furious cacophony of noise and heat blasted from the opening through which the conveyor belt disappeared.  He didn’t have time to tussle with these people. He dodged, ducking as he ran, and though one shot grazed his shoulder, he didn’t pause. He vaulted up onto the conveyor belt, and vanished into the shadowy machine beyond the daylight.

                The heat from the furnace within was immediately almost unbearable, and the riot of movement all around him made Jack’s head spin. Just ahead, manipulator arms gripped and twisted the body, pulling away limbs.  The sight made Jack feel nauseous, and briefly, he stood frozen, swaying. Beyond the BT’s dismembered silhouette a brilliant amber glow threatened.  There was no time. Jack lurched back into motion, partially actively dodging the moving parts of the machine, partially missing others by luck. His vision was going dark around the edges, but he reached the body, climbed over it, and, averting his eyes from the empty gap where BT’s sensor array should have been, ripped the canopy open with a cry. Inside, the SERE kit waited, the gently glowing optical array and Datacore looking somehow forlorn.  Tears stung at Jack’s eyes, and he shook himself, fighting back the sobs as he reached in and collected it with shaking hands. Retreating from the cockpit, he paused, hugging the cylindrical vessel to his chest.  Time moved without him briefly, and Jack forgot he was moving, on a steady path to total annihilation.

                _Stay a while longer,_ The Void seemed to call. _It won’t hurt for long._  Not nearly as long as life without BT would hurt. 

                Jack gave out a cry as a manipulator arm collided with him, and he fell from BT’s chassis, landing hard over the SERE kit in his arms, crushing his ribs. He groaned, vision going fuzzy as he fought the shock, and beside him the Titan body began to slide, the leading parts reaching the end of the conveyor belt.  Terror returned to Jack, as he realized he was no more than a meter from a fiery death. He broke into a dash, fighting the movement of the belt, and the added obstacle of the body closing in on him from the other direction. He scrambled, his grip sweat soaked and slippery, his vision fogged with pain, tears and smoke. He cleared BT’s body just as it slid away into the inferno. He had to force himself not to turn and watch, and trudged on, barely managing to overtake the movement of the belt beneath his too-heavy feet.

                He crawled out the way he had entered, and was greeted with gunfire. He rolled off the belt, cringing as he landed again on the Optical array in his arms, and repositioned himself for cover. He brought up his rifle, and returned fire. The sharp reports of the gun against his shoulder sounded distant- miles away.  He pulled the trigger again, and the click of an empty chamber rang far louder than the noise around him. He had miscounted. 

                The concrete right by his face exploded into gravel, a shot landing dangerously close, and he collapsed back behind the conveyor belt with a gasp. He sat with his back to his adversaries, the SERE kit in his lap, gasping. He stared down at the dark lens. He was on his own. But.  He ran his thumbs over the sensors on either side and the unit opened up.  A Dataknife, and a Smart Pistol.  He took a long, steadying breath.  BT had rescued him one last time.  He stowed the knife, and cast aside his spent rifle. He sucked in one long breath into burning lungs, and he positioned the array still carrying BT’s Datacore under one arm. He straightened up, pistol ready.

                Jack shot his way through the barrier of assailants, barely seeing where he was going, barely feeling the pain in his ribs or the burns on his arms.  All that existed for him was the cylinder tucked close to his body, and the pounding of his feet against the ground. He ran, and ran, and when the gunfire had gone silent and the shouts had faded into the distance, and he was back into the cover of a dense forest, he collapsed.

                There he lay, broken, curled around the last remains of his friend, and screamed until the Void opened and the entire Frontier vanished from around him.

                By the time the Void released him, he was back at home. His arm was all but frozen around what was left of BT, his head swam and his side _burned_. He smelt of blood, piss and vomit, and he didn’t know how he had gotten there, or how long it had taken, but he had barely gotten the door locked when he collapsed once again.

               

                When he came to, it was night. He hurt, and he felt like his chest had been carved open and his sternum pulled out.  His mind reeled constantly, searching for its other half that had suddenly gone missing.  He felt like hell. But also, somehow, a little better. Curled on the floor with the Sere Kit and BT’s Datacore, he had the power to rebuild.  They had not found him. Perhaps because he had been let go, perhaps because he had successfully escaped, but whatever the reason, he had made it.  There was a chance. He gathered up the pain, and tossed it to the Void.  He plugged the holes with hope.  He wiped the grime from his tear crusted face, and, shaking, lurched to his feet.

                He had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) This was physically painful to write. I've had it in my head for days and I was actively avoiding facing it.  
> 2) Written mostly to "Resistance" by Muse...which definitely made me mostly want to cry. 
> 
> I'm posting these all out of order...but hopefully, posting the happy ending part first made this a little easier to take.


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